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Maccabi head coach Oscar Garcia was gratified with his team's performance in their 1-3 victory over Ironi Kiryat Shmona: "My lads give it everything they have"

Last night's difficult away tie ended in a Maccabi victory 1-3 that restored their lead at the head of the table to 10 points ahead of Maccabi Haifa. This first victory since February 2009 at Kiryat Shmona was also Maccabi's fourth consecutive win on the road and the ninth in their last ten league games. Strikers Moanes Dabbur and Rade Prica and midfielder Eran Zahavi provided the goals and gave their manager, Oscar Garcia, every reason to be satisfied: "I'm very happy to have won on such difficult grounds. I don't know how the club managed on such grounds in the past, but I do know my lads give it everything they have. I can do my best to give the team the best possible chance of winning, but at the end of the day it's the players themselves that do the hard work on the pitch".

For Maccabi captain Sheran Yeini, the victory also provided a lot of positives: "This is a difficult grounds for us but we're very happy with the result, with our effort and of course with our performance. This match proved beyond any doubt that whoever plays in a Maccabi jersey has earned his stripes, we love and appreciate them all." He also urged caution at this crucial stage in the season: "As for the final table, it's still too early to be handing over the sceptre (of the championship). We still have seven games to play and that's enough time. In three days' time we have an important match against Hapoel Tel Aviv".

Scorer of the match's first goal, under 21 striker Moannes Dabbur, expressed his feelings in brief: "True, I haven't started in a while, but I've always continued to train hard and that's paying off. The professional staff have always expressed their faith in me and when I saw I was in the starting eleven tonight I knew I had to grab that opportunity, even though I know that scoring tonight is no guarantee I'll be in the starting eleven for the derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv on Saturday".